Epic of Gilgamesh - Power of the Relationship of Gilgamesh and Enkidu - Essay Example

Epic of Gilgamesh To start with, Gilgamesh is indeed a classical poetry piece which depends a great deal on the historical incidents taking place with regards to the city of Eruk, known as Iraq now. Quite commonly, one understands that the hero of Gilgamesh is indeed remarked as Gilgamesh. He was the son of a goddess and this is one aspect that is thoroughly highlighted upon here. This classic piece manifests a number of different strengths, all of which are linked with love, feelings of brotherhood and not to forget the closely-knitted bonds as well as relationships amongst the friends who are entailed within the characters themselves. Thus Gilgamesh is a classic piece of Middle Eastern culture and one which was written in cuneiform with the assistance of 12 clay tablets in 2000 BC. Gilgamesh basically describes the reason as to how and why Gilgamesh was thought of as a role model for the coming classic poems of the time. It has brought to the notice the beauty tangents and the power of the relationship that Gilgamesh and Enkidu had between them. Within this poem, the bond which was demonstrated between Gilgamesh and Enkidu is distinctive in its own right. The reason for this is that the two an adversarial relationship with one another. Being a fable of love and that too in its truest form, Gilgamesh is an epic without a shadow of a doubt. It has involved lingering grief which has caused pivotal changes to take place within his very character himself. Gilgamesh is the story of a person who is both respected as well as feared at the same time. He loves and shows hatred, wins and loses and in essence he is one person who lives life to the maximum possible levels. Even though Gilgamesh’s voyage is larger than life, yet somehow or the other it ends up with death. The fate of mankind is exposed through Gilgamesh and thus the undeniable factor of change gets its manifestation as well. Gilgamesh exhibited true power before the arrival of Enkidu. (Kovacs, 1989) There was no other human being who had equal match when it came to Gilgamesh himself. He showed his personal liking to glory and power and the best part was that he boasted with regards to the very same. He abused power in addition to showing off his attitude (and arrogance). The city of Uruk went into a state of injustice and people were ferocious all round. However Gilgamesh did not mend his ways and continue to display his wrath and power to all and sundry. It was after the death of Enkidu that Gilgamesh tried his levels best to explore the ways to reach immortality as he attempted to cross the ocean. He wanted to find the same in a pretty dire fashion. He did his best to carve out a life which had immortality written all over it. He continued with his expedition in an out and out fashion. His state of being like this was in essence entirely different from the arrogance that he showed at the starting of the epic itself. Thus he transformed into a scary person more than anything else. Also the slain of Humbaba changed Gilgamesh in entirety. (Foster, 2005) Since Humbaba was considered evil right from the onset, a number of people who were residents of Uruk started to fear Gilgamesh. Some people would reckon that Gilgamesh himself is a representation of evil but then again there could be debates in the wake of such a proposition. The fact that he used to have sex with the virgins, going about doing things on his and offending the gods at his own free will is a manifestation of what his personality was in essence. With his effort to make his way within the forest and face the might of Humbaba, Gilgamesh was able to make a name for his own self and thus change the views of the people once and for all. Gilgamesh was able to pen his name as a successful hero. However the price he had to pay for it is something totally different. Much could be written about the very same. The amount of loss and suffering which was eventually put down on the part of the people, perhaps he could have made an effort to turn things around and do something different. He might have employed wisdom in a much better way and thus avoided the feelings of despair and destruction to come anywhere close to him. He could have won a number of battles easily if he had the support and confidence of the people around him. As a matter of fact, Gilgamesh and his brother were able to achieve what the rest of the people could not even think of in those times. Gilgamesh and Enkidu were able to capture the world under their feet but the untimely death of Enkidu changed everything. Gilgamesh started to understand that he was just a human being and not a god and thus he needed to mend his ways after Enkidu’s death.  Thus Gilgamesh began to realize that death was pretty much near him and he gave up the ideas of becoming a god himself. He understood that he too was born from flesh and blood and hence he had no right to call himself the god in essence. He now comprehended the manner in which people related with the gods themselves and how the people interacted with them on a spiritual level. He was in the wrong in the past but now he was thinking completely different. He started to feel distinctive since now he understood that he too would die like a common man and not remain immortal like god. Similarly, the never-ending existence is of god alone and no other human being can achieve these sorts of divine qualities on his part. Gilgamesh was in the wrong and he understood in time what he needed to change within his own self, for the better of the people and for his own self. Thus his brother’s death made him learn a very wise lesson – let god take all the decisions and let human beings be just that – human beings at the end of the day. They can do no more and no less as god has asked of them and thus the role Gilgamesh had in this world is also dictated by god alone. It is a matter of fact that Gilgamesh tried his levels best to achieve immortality but could not do so because this was one tenet that was not within his domains. He changed his persona completely. He took decisions in a very wise and balanced way. He returned to his people and exhibited his ‘changed’ stance towards life, god and the people. In The Epic of Gilgamesh, Enlil and the other gods were pretty hysterical concerning the way the people were grasping quite a lot of control and this is the reason why the gods opened the floodgates. Also “The Story of the Flood” was related for just about the same reasons as God carried out similar activities. God said that “the end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.” (Abusch, 2001) After that, he told Noah to construct a kind of an arc so that he could walk over it and talk with him. Such stories reveal the true side of the world, the god and the people in the present times. Works Cited Abusch, Tzvi. The Development and Meaning of the Epic of Gilgamesh: An Interpretive Essay. The Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 121, 2001 Foster, Benjamin. A New Edition of the Epic of Gilgamesh. The Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 125, 2005 Kovacs, Maureen. The Epic of Gilgamesh. Stanford University Press, 1989 Word Count: 1,260 Read More